43

This is a follow-up to Where in the world do Stack Overflow users say they are from? As requested by Kyle Cronin, I've calculated the number of Stack Overflow users per capita. I'm making this a separate post since there were already so many charts and tables on the other one. But, lest anyone accuse me of rep-whoring, I'm making this post CW.

I have once again provided the full data in a Google Docs spreadsheet, and it is also available in Excel format.

Edit (2010.01.06): My previous post had incorrect per-capita data for the states in the US. I think I pasted the population data into my spreadsheet sorted by state name, when I had sorted the data by number of users. The result was that states had the incorrect populations. I have updated the chart and the Google spreadsheet to reflect the accurate numbers. And I apologize to all the Wasingtonians (state and DC) and Delewarians I offended. :)

Overview in charts

Worldwide

Europe

United States

Users per capita by country (top 20)

Country         Users per 1,000,000 residents
---------------------------------------------
Bermuda         15.3846
Isle of Man     12.5000
New Zealand     11.0939
Norway           9.5049
Iceland          9.3971
Sweden           8.9092
United Kingdom   8.7289
Australia        8.6148
Ireland          7.4003
Malta            7.2529
Canada           7.1874
Denmark          7.0659
Israel           6.7025
United States    5.8728
Netherlands      5.7398
Finland          5.0493
Switzerland      4.5185
Slovenia         4.3967
Belgium          3.8123
Estonia          3.7302

Users per capita by state/province

United States (top 20)

St/Prov                   Users per 1,000,000 residents
-------------------------------------------------------------
DC  District of Columbia  27.0347
DE  Delaware              19.4710
WA  Washington            16.3378
VT  Vermont                9.6576
MA  Massachusetts          8.1564
CO  Colorado               8.0981
OR  Oregon                 7.9154
UT  Utah                   6.5779
NY  New York               6.0543
CA  California             5.6860
MN  Minnesota              5.5551
ME  Maine                  5.3173
ID  Idaho                  5.2500
VA  Virginia               5.1486
PA  Pennsylvania           5.1413
NE  Nebraska               5.0464
AR  Arkansas               4.9030
WI  Wisconsin              4.7975
RI  Rhode Island           4.7583
MD  Maryland               4.4377

Canada

St/Prov                   Users per 1,000,000 residents
-------------------------------------------------------
YT  Yukon                 29.9025
PE  Prince Edward Island  21.3672
BC  British Columbia       9.5023
AB  Alberta                6.0565
ON  Ontario                5.7751
NB  New Brunswick          4.0090
SK  Saskatchewan           3.9070
NS  Nova Scotia            3.1931
QC  Quebec                 2.9553
MB  Manitoba               0.8238

United Kingdom

St/Prov           Users per 1,000,000 residents
-----------------------------------------------
Scotland          6.1914
England           5.3065
Wales             1.9969
Northern Ireland  1.1268

Australia

St/Prov                            Users per 1,000,000 residents
----------------------------------------------------------------
WA   Western Australia             7.1232
VIC  Victoria                      6.5319
NSW  New South Wales               6.0966
QLD  Queensland                    5.4996
SA   South Australia               4.4178
ACT  Australian Capital Territory  2.9420

Stack Overflow data retrieved from StatOverflow sandbox on 2009-10-05 (September 2009 data dump) for users with rep >= 1000. Population data retrieved from Wikipedia on 2009-10-13.

Just for TXI

frhc

Improve this question
22
  • 1
    wow, very interesting information
    – adardesign
    Oct 14, 2009 at 14:48
  • 7
    100% of we Super Mario Landians are Stack Overflow users, you discriminating monster.
    – Welbog
    Oct 14, 2009 at 14:49
  • 17
    Bermuda and Isle of Man? I guess there are a lot of people interested in "boat programming".
    – gnostradamus
    Oct 14, 2009 at 15:05
  • 3
    Isle of Man has a lot of banking (for tax reasons), so it may have more IT people then expected.
    – Ian Ringrose
    Oct 14, 2009 at 15:19
  • 3
    @gnovice: @Ian Ringrose: actually if you look at the full data, only one SO user with rep >= 1000 in each of Bermuda and Isle Of Man. But their population is so low that, per capita, they come out on top.
    – Kip
    Oct 14, 2009 at 19:44
  • 1
    Illinois second in user per capita...and we could not get a Dev Days in Chicago.
    – Miyagi Coder
    Oct 14, 2009 at 20:56
  • I suspect people from tiny, exotic locations are damn proud of it. And hence more likely to accurately fill in the location.
    – Stu Thompson
    Nov 8, 2009 at 19:08
  • 3
    @Stu: ...or people from boring places like Ohio are more likely to lie about it and put Bermuda.
    – Bill the Lizard
    Nov 8, 2009 at 20:12
  • 1
    @Bill the Lizard: I think you mean the people in Wyoming.
    – Stu Thompson
    Nov 8, 2009 at 20:25
  • 1
    @Stu: some of us like Wyoming. Ohio, on the other hand...
    – quack quixote
    Nov 8, 2009 at 20:36
  • Hey now, us Ohioans come in at a respectable 3rd among the states.
    – gnostradamus
    Jan 6, 2010 at 5:47
  • 1
    @Franks and Beans: @gnostradamus: After Pollyanna posted an answer yesterday, I looked at the data and realized the per-state data was incorrect. I've updated the post with the correct data--see the edit info at the top of this post.
    – Kip
    Jan 6, 2010 at 14:27
  • @Kip: Dang! Ohio isn't even on the list anymore.
    – gnostradamus
    Jan 6, 2010 at 15:39
  • @Peter: I assume it's a temporary thing. Wait a little bit.
    – Ladybug Killer
    Jan 6, 2010 at 21:49
  • 2
    The figures for the UK don't seem to add up. Unless there are loads of highish rep users hanging out on the Channel Islands.
    – Tom Hawtin - tackline
    Jan 7, 2010 at 5:51

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
7

Vikings strike again!

Improve this answer
3

I think there is a strong relation with "good English speaking countries" and SO country usage. Look at Europe: Esp. England, Ireland but also the (well-known English speaking) Scandinavian countries.

Other countries might prefer Q&A fora in their native language.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Users per million "fluent" English speakers (writers) might well give very different results.
    – Tom Hawtin - tackline
    Jan 7, 2010 at 5:46
3

Given 4M population in Michigan, I suppose that means there are 88 users here.

I propose a party.

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    Actually, Wikipedia says 10M in MI. There are 34 Michiganis here with rep >= 1000. But this post made me realize that my per-capita data for the states in the US was very wrong. I've updated my post. MI is now at 3.3988 users per 1M residents, ranked 33 in the nation.
    – Kip
    Jan 6, 2010 at 14:24
  • 4
    Oh sure, cut us down to barely a roomfull of users. I see how it is!
    – Pollyanna
    Jan 6, 2010 at 18:20
1

Although the population of cities is somewhat subjective, could you do an analysis of per-capita for cities?

Improve this answer
1
  • Sorry, I'm done with tedious data gathering for the moment. You can take the raw data from my other post, and look at the "by city" tab here: spreadsheets.google.com/… . If you want to go look up the actual population for each of those cities, and then calculate users/population, feel free. But there are 743 cities represented, which is a lot to look up.
    – Kip
    Nov 9, 2009 at 15:49

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .